


5 Times Tony Discovered Something About Peter

by thesunrises



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Gen, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Has A Heart, because fuck infinity war
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-13 04:03:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11751624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesunrises/pseuds/thesunrises
Summary: ... and 1 time Peter discovered something about him.Or, Tony wasn’t sure what to expect when he heard about the new vigilante in town, but it certainly wasn’t this.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This is my first fanfic ever, and I'm super excited to venture into this whole world for the first time. Sorry in advance for any typos, grammar mistakes, and the overabundance of parenthetical asides; I don't have a beta reader and I'm not the best at editing my own work.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, as much as I wish I did.

When Tony first started looking into the new vigilante that’d been making the rounds – “your friendly neighborhood spider-man,” as he told any villain, robber, mugger, or rapist that he came across – he didn’t know what he’d expected to find. 

Maybe he’d thought he was a professional gymnast who’d decided to use his flexibility for more heroic things. A Chemistry professor, perhaps, who’d managed to invent a formula that could emulate a spider’s web. (He was almost positive the webs weren’t actually coming _out_ of him, although you could never rule anything out these days.) Regardless, _this_ was far and away the absolute last possibility that he would’ve come up with.

Because not only was Spider-man not a professional in any relevant field, he wasn’t even working at all yet, because he was a _high schooler_. A 15 year old, to be exact, which was just– it was just absurd.

Tony had been almost too excited when he’d managed to attach a tracker to Spider-man’s suit via a nearly microscopic drone – given the scope of his accomplishments thus far in his life, it really wasn’t that impressive – but Spider-man had been so hard to track down. He patrolled pretty regularly but at odd hours (which Tony now realized was because he went to fucking _high school, oh my god_ ,) he mainly dealt with low profile crimes so he was rarely on the news, and he kept to himself, shying away from any and all contact with other superheroes in the area.

That was actually the reason Tony had been so determined to track him down in the first place. He’d been making a point for the last few years to get to know the other heroes and vigilantes that cropped up around his area, because having backup in fights could mean the difference between getting home safely and becoming an alien’s equivalent of a Big Mac. Mostly, it’d gone fine. Of course, there was always a bit of mistrust at the beginning – which was completely understandable given the nature of their job – but the fact that everyone knew who he was helped get them on his side quickly.

Spider-man, however, was another matter entirely. Every time Tony even got close to him, he’d give him a sarcastic little salute or a nod and disappear. As fast as the Iron Man suit was, Spider-man always managed to lose him somewhere in the maze of skyscrapers. 

The tracker was his last resort. Was it an invasion of privacy? Very much so, yes. Did he do it anyway with little to no regret? Also yes. Desperate times, and all that. 

That night he waited anxiously at his computer, waiting for the little red dot on the screen to stop moving around the city. When it finally did stop for the night in a little apartment in Queens, he traced the address and pulled up all the records available on whoever lived there. 

The first things he found were the names: Peter and May Parker. (Although he automatically eliminated May Parker as a possibility, as even though it was pretty young sounding, the voice behind the mask was a distinctly male one.) After that, it was almost laughably easy.

That, really, was where he should’ve stopped, but he’d always had the need to find every bit of information he could on whatever subject that he was interested in at the time. There was no halfway with Tony. When he was little, it’d gotten him in trouble with his dad quite a bit, as he was a very private man. Now, it usually resulted in either information that lead to a new invention, or accidentally (on purpose) finding out way, way too much about people.

Case in point: Peter Parker.

Peter had no shortage of documents for Tony to find. There were countless science fair wins, honor roll mentions, and, on a much sadder note, articles on the deaths of his parents and uncle. (Tony wondered if any superhero _didn’t_ have a past that could be turned into an award winning tearjerker.) There was nothing there that indicated how he could’ve gotten his powers, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything; Tony was almost positive that this was his guy.

But it was just so incredibly unbelievable. When he was 15, his biggest worries included making his dad notice him and getting into Linda Parrish’s pants. This kid had taken it upon himself to try to singlehandedly stop crime in New York City. 

Tony put his head down on his desk and groaned; he could feel a headache coming on already. If he was going to keep his sanity intact, he had to make sure him and his already-too-large guilt complex stayed far, far away from Peter Parker. It probably wouldn’t be that hard, considering Parker already booked it whenever Tony came too close. No big deal. He’d just focus on another hero in the area.

__________

The next day, Tony was standing outside Peter’s high school.

To be fair, this didn’t mean he was getting _involved_ at all. He just had an engineer’s brain, and needed to see things himself to confirm them as fact – Spider-man being a nerdy 15 year old seemed crazy enough that it was understandable that he’d want to see it with his own eyes. 

He didn’t have to wait long. The school bell rang, and the entire student body flooded out the front doors like a living tidal wave of sweat, hormones, and acne. Amidst the crowd was one Peter Parker, a little older than the pictures online and face scrunched up in a laugh aimed at the boy next to him, but still very much recognizable. 

Tony’s eyes zeroed in on his right arm and his breath left him all at once. Near the top of his bicep was an impressive looking bruise, already healing but stark against his pale skin. It was normal enough looking that it could’ve been explained away as an accident without anyone questioning it further, but Tony happened to know that Spider-man had been fighting a group of bank robbers the previous night and had taken a hit to that arm in the exact same place with some type of stun gun. 

So that confirmed it. The masked hero that had managed to avoid Tony Stark himself for several months while simultaneously going out to fight criminals every night was a high schooler. _Christ_.

Tony needed a drink.


	2. Chapter 2

“Holy _snickerdoodles_ , Mr. Stark!” 

Tony felt his lips quirk up in an amused smirk. “I had a feeling you’d like it.”

Peter looked again around the lab and turned back to Tony with a look of complete and utter awe. “ _Like_ it? You’re kidding, right? This lab is every science nerd’s _dream_. I can’t believe you’re letting me step foot in here, let alone actually touch anything.” He followed Tony farther into the lab, mouth slightly agape and steps hesitant, as if he was expecting someone to pop out any second and announce that it was all a joke and make him leave. 

“I have to get some stuff done for R&D anyway,” Tony said with a deliberately casual tone. “Do you want to, I don’t know, play around with some spare parts and things I have lying around while I work?” When he didn’t get a response, he spun around to see Peter stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes almost comically wide. Tony let out a snort and asked, “So is that a yes?”

“ _Dude_.”

__________

Several hours later, Tony glanced up and was taken aback by the sight of the sun starting to go down outside the window. It was a regular occurrence for him to lose track of time while working on a project, but he hadn’t expected to work so well with a mass of clumsy teenage limbs and fidgety energy working next to him. It had actually been surprisingly… nice.

Peter never stopped moving, but Tony found that rather than being distracting, the constant reminder that there was someone else there was actually strangely comforting. And while Peter couldn’t seem to stop himself from making comments or asking questions every so often, Tony was surprised and a little impressed to find that every question was thoughtful and showed knowledge of the subject at hand, and some of his comments were actually insightful enough that Tony considered writing them down and thinking over them later to see if he could use them in some marketable way in the future. 

He’d known the kid was smart – he’d read all the articles detailing his science fair wins, after all – but he hadn’t realized until today just _how_ smart he was. Tony hadn’t been paying a whole lot of attention to what Peter was making, but he’d been expecting a rudimentary weapon of some sort made out of spare parts, or maybe a miniature death star, knowing Peter. What _actually_ was sitting on the table in front of the kid was a fully functioning mini robot. It wasn’t unlike a smaller version of Dum-E, actually, although at the moment it was rolling forward in jerky spurts of movement.

Peter looked up from what he was doing, catching Tony staring and blushing immediately. “Sorry,” he stuttered. “I’m still working out some kinks in the coding; these systems are much different than the dinosaurs I have at home.” 

The need for approval was so clear on his face that Tony was completely disarmed for a second. For one thing, it bore an unnerving resemblance to a scene that had played out over and over again throughout his childhood. It also was an unexpected and terrifying thought that he now had someone who so clearly cared what he thought, for some reason. Responsibility gave him hives, and up to this point in his life, Tony had done everything in his power to avoid having people look up to him in any way.

He guessed it was a little too late for that. He couldn’t brush Peter off now, or he’d be no better than Howard. God, this was why he didn’t want to get involved with the kid in the first place.

Tony cleared his throat. “Yeah, it’s – it’s great, kid, but maybe you could come down and finish it another time. We have to get going because it’s getting late and it’s a school night.” He winced. “Wow, that sounded way more like my old man than I meant it to. Do me a favor and pretend I never said that.”

Before Peter could say anything, he added, “But we really do have to get you home or your Aunt May’s going to kill me.” Peter finally seemed to notice the time, and his eyes widened. 

“Oh my god, Mr. Stark! I said I was going to be home by 8 and I’ve already been late the past two days and _she’s going to_ –”

“Relax, kid,” Tony chuckled, resting his hand on Peter’s shoulder and guiding him toward the door. “It’s only 7:30. You'll make it home in time if we hustle a bit.” Peter let out an audible sigh of relief and Tony was reminded once again just how young the kid really was. It was easy to forget sometimes when he was doing things like taking down robbers and building actual functioning robots. But the shoulder under his hand was the kind of skinny that came from being in the middle of puberty and they were leaving because he had a fucking _curfew_ because he was _15_ and Tony really needed to think about something else or the plan of keeping him at arm’s length was going right out the window.

Peter stopped so suddenly that Tony walked right into his back. 

“Kid, what the h – oh, hey Bruce.” Tony glanced down at Peter’s face and grinned. After all that time in the lab, he’d almost forgotten that building things wasn’t even the kid’s true passion; he was even more enthusiastic about the biology/chemistry side of things, which happened to be more in Bruce’s court.

“B-Bruce Banner? _The_ Bruce Banner?” Peter’s voice cracked on the second “Bruce,” but he was so busy being starstruck that he didn’t seem to notice. Only because he had years of friendship under his belt did Tony notice the nearly imperceptible way Bruce tensed up, his smile becoming a little less genuine and a little more brittle. It only took a second for Tony to understand why: almost every other person who’d acknowledged him that way were referring to the fact that he turned into the Hulk.

Peter didn’t seem to notice his tenseness, though, and plowed right ahead, talking so quickly that he stumbled over his words. 

“I can’t believe I’m actually meeting you in person. There’s so much I want to talk to you about. Your work in gamma radiation, for one, is _so amazing_. I’ve read literally all of your research, or at least all of it that I could get my hands on because I really only had access to my school library and the internet. Oh no, where are my manners? Aunt May would kill me if I didn't – here –” He paused long enough to shake Bruce’s hand with enough zeal that Tony was actually a bit worried about Peter forgetting and losing control of his super strength. “I’m Peter, by the way. Spider-man, too. Well, I’m not sure if I’m supposed to say that or not but I’m pretty sure you already know anyway and–”

“Kid. Peter. Take a breath,” Tony said. He waited for Peter to do as he said before continuing. “It’s 7:42. Remember the whole “Oh no, Aunt May’s going to kill me if I miss curfew again” thing?” Tony rested his hand lightly on Peter’s lower back and used it to gently prod him toward the door. Peter looked back mournfully at Bruce.

Bruce chuckled lightly, and in a slightly confused voice, as if he was still trying to make sense of what just happened, said, “It was lovely meeting you, Peter. I’d love to get together some time soon and geek out over science together, if you’re okay with that.”

“ _Oh my god, yes_ ,” Peter breathed out. And then he _beamed_ , and it was a look of such pure happiness that Tony felt his own mouth break into a smile in response before he could stop it.

God, when had he become such a sap?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy smokes, batman! The response to this has blown me away. Thank you guys all so much for reading this silly little thing and for all of your lovely comments. It really means the world to me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... first of all, sorry? I honestly didn't mean to be gone for so long. I don't want to bore y'all by going into too much detail, but basically my life got really chaotic and writing plummeted to the bottom of my priority list. I felt bad about going so long without an update so I threw this shitty thing together and posted it without even really reading over it to make edits.
> 
> I feel like my dogs when they bring me a dead bird or something as a gift. (to be clear: me = my dumb dogs, this chapter = the disgusting bird/rat/insert gross dead thing, and you guys = me, pretending to be grateful while accepting the "gift")
> 
> So yeah, enjoy? I guess?
> 
> I PROMISE the next chapters will be out soon. I already have them all planned out so I just have to actually, you know, _write_ them.

All things considered, Tony was perhaps not doing the best at keeping his distance from the Spider-kid. Although, to be honest, it was beginning to bother him less and less as time went on.

It started with a weekly phone call just to check in. The whole incident with the Vulture was still a fresh, raw wound in his mind, and he would be damned if he was going to let his own problems get the kid hurt again.

He almost didn’t notice when the single phone call turned into two, three, four a week. The kid had yet to reach out to him – Tony guessed the Vulture incident was still fresh in his mind too – but that didn’t deter Tony in the slightest. He was determined to show the kid that there were people there for him when he needed help, and asking for it wasn’t a bad thing.

That was how he found himself driving up to Peter’s high school – again, as if the first time wasn’t enough – and once again braving the living, writhing sea of hormones just to take the kid home. Rationally, Tony knew that a 10 block walk wouldn’t be a problem for a regular teen, let alone one with superhuman abilities, but he also knew that it was raining and walking in the rain could lead to colds and he couldn’t get the _fucking_ picture of Peter going after Toomes out of his _goddamn_ head so he was going to drive him home, damnit.

It was possible Tony was going a bit insane. (It was also extremely possible that Tony had always been a bit insane, so it probably wasn’t anything to worry too much about.)

As fun as it would be to see the looks on the kids’ faces upon seeing The Tony Stark drive up to their school, Tony’d had Happy bring a small, unassuming black car that wouldn’t turn heads, out of respect for the kid. He was – understandably, given his past experiences – extremely careful about keeping his identity under wraps.

Happy parked a good distance away, far enough that no one would notice him but close enough that Tony could find Peter in the flow of kids coming from the building. Given that Peter didn’t actually know he was coming, Tony sat poised so that he subtly catch the kid’s attention whenever he came out.

Except he didn’t come out.

The tidal wave of loud, acne-ridden teens slowed to a manageable flow, then to a trickle, then stopped completely, save for a few stragglers. It was possible Tony had just missed him – although he could probably pick Peter’s face out of a crowd of thousands, by now, not that he would admit it to himself – but he doubted it, considering he’d seen Neil, or whatever his name was, walk out already, and they almost always seemed to be glued at the hip when Peter wasn’t in the suit.

It was also possible that Peter just hadn’t gone to school that day, but given that he had a calculus test that day – Tony hated that he knew that – it was unlikely. Tony had also seen him pick himself up and keep fighting even when his left arm and right leg were literally broken, so he doubted he’d taken a sick day.

Tony tapped his fingers on the door handle fought an internal war with himself in which half of him knew there was probably nothing to be worried about and half of him felt the beginning of the choking panic that he only ever seemed to feel in regards to the kid begin to rise in his throat.

He was on the verge of marching into the building himself when a kid with familiar mop of brown hair stumbled backwards out of the doors. Tony breathed a sigh of relief, feeling the completely irrational tension in his muscles begin to ease.

But just as he was about to roll down the window and call out to him, another teenager stalked out of the doors. A very, very angry teenager.  
Peter whirled around and tried to get away but the other teen was hot on his heels and reached out to grip a hand on Peter’s shoulder, preventing him from getting away (or, at least, preventing him from getting away without exposing himself). The other teen snarled something that Tony couldn’t catch and beckoned to someone inside the door – apparently two someones, Tony realized. Peter was now surrounded by three teenage boys, all larger than him, with no faculty in sight.

The malicious looks on their faces, if nothing else, convinced Tony that this wasn’t just some friendly spat. As the circle around Peter started to tighten, Tony unthinkingly scrambled to open the door and crawl out of the car, leaving behind an oblivious Happy, who was listening to a podcast and had completely tuned out his surroundings. Tony began to walk toward the scene, still a bit wary of being spotted. There were almost certainly no reporters around but, he could still picture the headlines: TONY STARK PREYING ON VULNERABLE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS? FIND OUT MORE BELOW. A bit less subtle than Peter usually liked to be associated with, perhaps.  
He broke out into a jog, however, when he saw what seemed to be the leader of the little possy land a solid punch across Peter’s jaw. Peter went down – hard – but still seemed determined not to fight back.

“Nice one, Flash.” One of the goons flanking the leader – Flash, apparently, and of course his name was something dumb like that – gave him a high five. Flash just shook out his hand and bounced from foot to foot. His fighting technique was terrible – Tony wished he could witness the epic beatdown that would be Peter actually fighting back. He reached the scene and had to pause for a second to push down the hot, bubbling rage simmering under his skin.

“What in the everloving _fuck_ –” Tony relished the way Flash startled and turned at the sound of his voice “–do you think you’re doing?”

Peter, still cupping his jaw, turned to Tony with wide eyes. “It’s – it’s not what it looks like, Mr. Stark. They were just helping to teach me self-defense, right guys?” The vacant, astonished way the three teens nodded their heads almost would’ve been comical if Tony weren’t a second away from strangling them.

“Peter, don’t even try that shit right now. We’re going back to the tower, taking you to the med bay, and I’m going to track down these assholes and make sure they can never use a piece of StarkTech _ever_ again.” Peter blinked a couple times before reaching up and grabbing onto Tony’s outstretched hand.

“That’s really unnecessary, Mr. Stark, trust me–” he snapped his mouth shut when he caught sight of Tony’s face, which no doubt looked murderous.

Tony heard one of the goons in the background whisper, way too loudly to actually be subtle, “Hold up – is he saying that Penis Parker wasn’t lying about that dumb internship?” Tony whirled around and took a deep breath because _wow_ , there were _so_ many things in that sentence that he had something to say about, but he stopped when Peter met his eye and gave a quick, pleading shake of his head.

All the air went out of his sails so quickly he felt like he might have whiplash. The kid’s face, though no doubt already healing, was completely blue and purple down one side and his eyes looked even more like a kicked puppy than normal. And yet, he still stood tall, his chin high despite the fact that it must've hurt like a bitch. The sight filled Tony with a feeling he wasn't sure he could name.

Tony could worry about the dicks behind him another time. Right now, Peter was hurt, and this time Tony could actually do something about it. He motioned with his head for Peter to go to the car and the kid scurried off, seemingly relieved.

He turned slowly to see three identical deer-in-the-headlights looks and gave them what Pepper called his “You’d Better Run If You Want To Keep Your Internal Organs On The Inside” face. They took the hint within seconds and ran off in different directions.

Tony ran his hand through his hair. As if worrying about intergalactic aliens and supervillains weren’t enough, now run of the mill school bullies were on Keep Far, Far Away From Peter Parker list? It was honestly a miracle the kid was still alive.

_______

Later on, when Peter explained to Tony that he let Flash & Co beat him up because he could heal faster and take hits better than the other geeks at the school, Tony was simultaneously filled with such pride, dread, and exasperation that it made him a little dizzy.

After everything he’d gone through, Peter fucking Parker was going to be the thing to cause him to go prematurely gray.

(And yes, it was premature, fuck you very much.)


	4. Chapter 4

“What? Why?” And then again because once didn’t seem like quite enough, “ _What?_ ” Tony stared at Peter’s sheepish face and pushed down a wave of exasperation.

“Please don’t be mad.” Peter looked so genuinely afraid of Tony’s reaction that a little spring of guilt bubbled up past the all the confusion.

“Jesus, kid,” Tony said, giving him a friendly punch on the shoulder. “Stop looking at me like I kicked your puppy. I’m not mad. A little confused and maybe a tiny bit offended that you didn’t mention it to me earlier, but not mad.”

Peter’s kicked puppy look subsided marginally but he still looked ridiculously guilty, just sitting there and shuffling his feet. Tony rubbed at his temples and turned around to sit at the dining table. When a couple seconds passed and Peter made no move to follow him, Tony huffed out a breath and jerked his head toward the seat across from him.

“Listen up, kid. I know I’ve ventured a little too far into the “helicopter parenting” realm in the past, but I’ve learned my lesson about the consequences of _that_ the hard way, so I’m not gonna freak out about some extra training. If anything, I’m glad that this means you’ll stop getting your ass kicked so often.”

Peter sputtered. “Wh- I don’t get my ass kicked! If anything, I’m the one kicking asses.” At Tony’s unimpressed glance toward the burn mark crawling up his arm from the previous morning, Peter flushed and hurriedly yanked his sleeve down. “He had an _alien ray gun,_ Mr. Stark.”

Tony just hummed noncommittally and took a long sip from his glass that was unfortunately filled not with whiskey whiskey but ice water. He really had no right to be offended, given that he had no real role in Peter’s life, but the truth was that it did hurt a little bit that Peter had not only chosen to go to Natasha for sparring lessons instead of him, but that he hadn’t even mentioned it to him.

“How long has this been going on?” Tony asked, making his tone deliberately casual. Peter lifted his eyes to meet Tony’s, his mouth parting in a tiny smile seemingly without his consent.

“ _Oh my god,_ Mr. Stark. Ms. Romanov is _so cool._ I’m pretty sure she could kill twenty of the world’s best assassins using only her pinky finger. Probably blindfolded.”

Tony chuckled. Maybe it was something spider-related and could be attributed to some weird arachnid chemicals – although, logically, Tony knew it most likely had more to do with the kind of person Peter was – but Tony was sure it was physically impossible not to smile back when the kid turned his smile on you. Honestly, he could probably use it as a weapon during fights; he could just turn it on the villian of the week and they’d be too busy figuring out why they were grinning to see the webs coming.

(Or, possibly, Tony was just a sap, but that was neither here nor there.)

“Hey, Mr. Stark,” Peter suddenly piped up, snapping Tony out of his disgustingly sentimental thoughts. “Do you want to – if you’re not too busy, obviously – maybe, possibly sit in on our sparring session tomorrow?” The kid was turning red at a frankly alarming speed, and Tony smiled at him before he could rescind his statement.

“I’d love to, Underoos. As long as you don’t mind me potentially embarrassing you in front of the cool, assassin-killing ‘Ms. Romanov.’”

Peter let out a low, pained groan. Tony just laughed.

_________

So that was how Tony Stark found himself settling down on a sweaty workout mat in the back of the communal gym to watch a fully grown former Russian spy kick his – no, _a_ 15 year old kid’s ass. He couldn’t begrudge Nat on that one though – the kid had apparently he insisted on wearing his suit to all of their training sessions in order to keep his identity from her and any other Avengers that happened to be in the gym at the time, so there was no way for her to know that the person she was beating up couldn’t even legally vote.

They began with a boring but necessary series of stretches to loosen their limbs. Tony winced as his middle-aged bones creaked in protest at the mere thought of contorting into the disturbingly pretzel-like shapes that Natasha and Peter were executing.

To be honest, Tony was impressed with how controlled Peter was being. Tony would’ve thought he’d be bouncing off the walls with the combination of tedious, repetitive moments and being in the presence of someone he clearly idolized. But he was grounded in a way Tony rarely saw; he was keeping his stuttering to a minimum, listening attentively to everything Natasha said, and even keeping up a banter with Natasha that was so charming that Tony could see her smile a few of her genuine smiles instead of the controlled ones she usually used.

As far as Tony was concerned, that was the best thing he was going to see all day, and he was a bit disappointed when they finished their warm-ups and stood to begin the actual sparring part.

Natasha gave Peter no warning, kicking out with her right leg in a low, sweeping kick before the kid had even fully stood up. Luckily, his spidey sense seemed to grant him about a milisecond’s worth of preparation, and he managed to slide far enough back that the kick only grazed his knee instead of knocking him on his back. He sidestepped her next kick and ducked under her punch in one smooth movement, and then completed a seemingly unnecessary but effective flip in order to dodge her next jab/roll combo.

His ability to stay just out of the line of fire was, admittedly, impressive, but Tony couldn’t help but notice that he wasn’t making any attempts at offensive moves. Nat seemed to pick up on it too and doubled her attack speed while adding in some colorful phrases to egg him on, such as “Fucking hit me!” and “Do you think you can defeat a villain by dodging them to death?”

Peter just growled frustratedly, shouting, “I’m not holding back – _oof –_ on purpose! I’m just not – _ah, shit –_ good at hand-to-hand!”

Nat, the fucker, didn’t even seem winded when she replied, “You can’t get better–” _kick-punch_ “– if you don’t fucking–” _jab-uppercut-duck_ “– _try_.”

Peter panted and dodged another roundhouse kick by skidding backwards, but he tripped over something on the ground – Tony couldn’t see what it was from this angle – and went crashing to the ground. Nat pressed her advantage immediately, holding him down with a single booted foot on his torso. She was facing Tony, so he had a perfect view of her face when she quirked one eyebrow and asked, “Do you yield?” He wasn’t able to see Peter’s face but he could imagine his determined face in perfect detail as he watched the kid scrabble for purchase on the mat and snag on whatever he’d tripped over.

Most of all, he was able to see Nat’s face slacken into a rare show of honest-to-god shock when Peter picked up whatever the object was and swung it in an arc in front of him.

Tony squinted. Rubbed his eyes. Blinked a few times. Considered going back to the psychiatrist Pepper had made him see that one time. Because there, sitting up with a questioning tilt to his head when Nat made no move to attack him again, was Peter _goddamn fucking_ Parker. And he was casually holding Mjölnir in his left hand as if it was nothing more than a fucking pencil.

Thor, Steve, and Clint, who had been running drills about twenty feet away, had all paused what they were doing and just stared slack-jawed at the tiny, red anomaly that was Peter Parker. Tony scrambled up from his spot at the back of the gym and jogged over to where Peter was apparently apologizing to Nat, oblivious to what he just did.

“I’m so sorry – did I hit you? You’re always telling me to use my surroundings and this thing was right here and I wasn’t planning on actually hitting you, anyway, just getting you to back away and –”

“You didn’t hurt me, Webs.”

“Then what–”

“I think she’s just a little blindsided by your choice in weapon, kid,” Tony cut in. “Do you know what you’re holding right now?” He watched as understanding slowly dawned on Peter’s face.

“Is this–”

“Yep.”

“And that means–”

“Yep.”

There was a deafening silence in the gym for a moment before Thor let out a raucous laugh, which started Clint laughing, which made Natasha crack a smile, and then all of them – save for Peter – were doubled over laughing at the absurdity of this tiny, spandex clad figure hefting Mjölnir in the air like it weighed nothing. Tony heard Peter let out a nervous laugh as he climbed to his feet, still clutching the damn hammer.

Thor picked himself up and wiped his eyes. “This is … a most unexpected – but not unwelcome – surprise. Let us go upstairs and have a celebratory drink to honor to the Man of Spiders, a warrior whose strength lies not only in his body, but in his heart as well.”

Peter visibly perked up at the prospect and turned to Tony, who pinched his nose.

“I’m gonna have to nix the drinks, big guy, sorry. The ‘Man of Spiders’ and I are actually late for an – uh – extremely important lab session to fix his suit.”

When Peter made no move toward the door, Tony sighed and gently led him away by the shoulders, making sure to make a pitstop to drop off the hammer on the way out. He also pointedly ignored the stares he could feel burning holes in his back. When the door shut behind them, Tony breathed a sigh of relief.

“Sorry to whisk you away, kiddo, but I wanted to get you out of there before it turned into a game of ‘Guess the Spider’s Identity.’”

“Oh, yeah – uh, thanks, Mr. Stark. I appreciate it. I guess I’m just a little – like, wow, you know?” Peter shook his head lightly and resumed walking toward the lab, even though he had to know there wasn’t actually a project that they needed to do down there.

Tony forced a chuckle, still in shock himself. “Don’t let it go to your head, though. It was probably mostly the tech in the suit that lifted it, which _I_ made, need I remind you.”

Peter snorted and turned to him in mock outrage. “It was _not_ ! I’m sure it had more to do with these _gigantic_ biceps,” he said, pointing to his arms, which still vaguely resembled noodles, despite the super strength Tony knew they possessed. They held eye contact for a second before Peter broke, dissolving into wheezing giggles, setting Tony off too.

And just like that, the weird mood was broken, and Tony was reminded that this was _Peter._ Ridiculous, too-good Peter, who still enjoyed playing with Legos, and helped old ladies cross the street, and would always, _always_ put others before himself, no matter how much Tony hated it.

Looking back, Tony had no idea how it came as any sort of surprise that Peter could lift Mjölnir, given how amazingly, all-encompassingly _good_ Peter was.

________

So later, when Nat cornered him in the kitchen and demanded to know just who this new kid was, Tony didn’t hesitate before answering.

“He is, without a doubt, the best goddamn person I have _ever_ met, and if he lives past whatever shit we all know is coming, he's going to change the goddamn world."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate this a lot but I had to get something out to y'all, so here you go. Let me know what you think, even if it's "wow, this sucks." I appreciate every comment and every single person who reads my work even though it's mediocre at best. I love y'all and hope you have a fantastic day/night/whatever.


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